180713-01 Late Classic Period Navajo Serape woven of Saxony Wool Trade Yarns; POR
62" x 38 1/2"
c.. 1850-1860
A rare serape, primarily of 3-ply Saxony; with indigo, light green vegetable and cochineal dye. There is some ravelled bayetta along with the plied saxony wool yarns. The indigo dyed yarns is hand spun. Excellent Condition.
Of exceptional beauty, this shoulder blanket has the division of space and density of pattern which provides the powerful nature of the classic period of Navajo weaving.
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Mid-19th century Navajo rugs often used a three-ply yarn called Saxony, which refers to high-quality, naturally dyed, silky yarns that were imported from Europe. Red tones in Navajo rugs of this period come either from Saxony or from a raveled cloth known in Spanish as bayeta, which was a woolen manufactured in England and again, imported into the US. In this blanket, there is both Saxony and Bayetta yarns. Saxony blankets are extremely rare, and are noted for their exceptional quality of wool and fineness of the yarn which produced some of the most delicate and artistic Navajo blankets ever woven. In this blanket, the weaver spun her hand spun for the white and indigo dyed blue yarns as fine as the rare commercial trade yarns.
Later, with the arrival of the railroad in the early 1880s, another machine-produced yarn came into use in Navajo weaving: four-ply aniline dyed yarn known as Germantown because the yarn was manufactured in Pennsylvania.
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